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As LG Bob Duffy (a former police officer) served as the good cop in his appearance before the joint legislative budget hearing, Gov. Andrew Cuomo was sounding like a, well, slightly less accommodating cop — or that’s how it might have sounded if you’re a school administrator.

Cuomo’s appearance on Fred Dicker’s Talk 1300 AM radio show gave the governor a chance to note that yesterday’s Siena poll suggests that “the people get it,” and that his strategy of pitching his budget proposal directly to the people is working. But the ultimate fate of the budget was still up in the air, Cuomo said.

“My sense is (the negotiation process) is going well — but you know, this isn’t horseshoes: close doesn’t count,” he said. “If they get a budget done on April 1, it will have gone well; if they don’t it will not have gone well.”

He then turned to the question of education funding, and turned up the heat.

“There is a difference between supporting the bureaucracy of education and funding and enhancing performance for the students — they’re not always synonymous,” Cuomo said. ” … If you give more money to the education system, that’s better for the students. Really? Or is it better for the bureaucracy of education? … How many times have your heard about additional performance measures, graduation rates, student achievement rates? You’re not hearing that — you’re hearing pension benefits, health care benefits, wage increases, step increases.”

He referred to “the old threat: ‘We’ll lay off teachers, we’re going to hurt your students, we’re going to hurt your child.’ Find savings in the bureaucracy. This is an industry that has gotten unprecedented increases over the past decade.”

Cuomo said it was a “false choice” to frame the debate as one between more school funding and improved student performance.

“The argument we have in Albany is they say, ‘Well, clearly there are no savings to be found in the bureaucracy of education.’ The premise of the argument is the education system and these 700 school districts (are) finely tuned Swiss watches that are operating at peak efficiency.”

Cuomo noted that the state’s cut of 7.3 percent shakes out to a final cut of 2.7 percent after federal and local funding is factored in.

“We can’t find 2.7 percent of waste or inefficiency? I reject the notion,” he said. “I just cut my salary budget 5 percent; I cut the Attorney General’s budget my last year about 10 percent — did you see the office stumble and fall apart? And by the way, I’m going through the exercise with the entire state government to the tune of about 10 percent.

“The system doesn’t want to do this because the system wants more money, because that enhances the system,” he said. “I get it, everybody gets it. Unfortunately for Albany, the people now get it too.”

Cuomo said that while progress was being made on a comprehensive ethics package, there was nothing final with legislative leaders.

“What they excel at is getting close to the goal line and not going over,” Cuomo said.

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